Your jointer fence is probably not set at exactly 90 degrees. Mine is not either. There is a marking trick that makes it not matter, and it is the most useful thing in this video.

The trick: a triangle and I O I O

Once I have the boards laid out in the order I want them, I draw a big triangle across the whole panel. That is standard, and it means I can always put the boards back in the right order and the right orientation after they leave the bench.

Then on each board I write I or O, alternating. I, O, I, O.

That tells me which face goes against the jointer fence. One board gets its face in, the next gets its face out, all the way across.

Here is why that works. If your fence is off by half a degree, every board comes off with an edge that is 89.5 degrees instead of 90. If you joint them all the same way, every joint stacks that error and your panel bows. If you alternate, one board is 89.5 and its neighbor is 90.5, and the pair adds up to exactly 180 at the glue line. The error cancels itself out.

You do not need a perfectly calibrated fence. You need a consistent one and a pencil.

Picking the boards

This top is for my daughter’s vanity, so I spent real time on face selection. I was hunting medullary rays, the ray fleck that shows up when a board is cut close to quartersawn. When it catches the light it does not look like wood grain, it looks like something.

She is going to be looking down at that top every day, and realistically it will be covered in product most of the time. It still matters. And if it ever gets rough, she can refinish it someday.

Knots

Two knots to deal with. One I cut around entirely by choosing where to crosscut. The other I deliberately placed toward the outside edge of the panel, because when I bring the top down to final width, there is a decent chance it just disappears.

That is a general rule worth internalizing. A defect near the middle of a panel is a problem forever. A defect near the edge is a problem you get to solve later with a saw.

Oversize everything

Finished top is 48 by 22. I cut the stock at 49, because a spare inch turns a mistake into a trim cut.

Same on the legs. I cut leg blanks at 32 and a quarter and made them fat, and it paid off immediately, because one glue up wiggled on me under clamp pressure. Because it was oversized, that is a truing problem instead of a scrap problem.

Glue up

Two things that make this less miserable.

Painter’s tape along the clamp bars. Squeeze out will not bond to it, so you peel it off instead of chiseling dried glue off your clamps later.

3D printed feet for the clamps, so the panel sits up off the bars instead of resting in the squeeze out. I have a printed set that works better than the ones that came with the clamps, which is a nice reminder that a printer earns its keep on shop fixtures more than anything else.

Also alternate your clamps above and below the panel. Clamping from one side only levers the panel into a curve.

My back side did not come out perfectly flush and I am not going to pretend otherwise. It will get planed and sanded, and the bottom face is where you hide your sins.

Book match the leg blanks

The legs get glued up from thinner stock, which means visible seams. The way to make a seam disappear is to take both halves from the same board and open them like a book. Same color, same grain direction, continuous figure. It went from a seam you would notice to one you have to look for.

One piece had a divot in it that was going to leave a void in the glue line. There is no clever fix for that. I went and found another board.

One small habit

I move the fence position on the jointer between passes so I am not wearing a groove in one section of the knives. Same idea as rotating tires. Costs nothing, and it means the knives last longer before they need attention.

Top glued up, legs glued up, both drying overnight. Next is the frame that carries the top, then the drawers.

Tools from this session

Links below are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which costs you nothing extra and helps keep the shop running.

• Parallel bar clamps
• Wood glue
• Painter’s tape, for the clamp bars
• Glue spreader
• Hand plane, for leveling the glue line
• Marking pencils, the actual hero of this post

Follow along

One guy in a small shop on his father-in-law’s property in Lindsborg, Kansas. IT Director by day, maker by obsession. Equal parts problem solver, craftsman, and curious human. If you’re the kind of person who takes things apart to see how they work, or watches people who do, you’re in the right place.

Uncut shop sessions go up on YouTube and I stream on Twitch. Everything is @carverwoodworking. There is merch in the shop, or you can buy me a coffee.